The Aldrich Alert

by Gary Aldrich - Volume 1 Issue 1

In 1993, Bill and Hillary Clinton brought with them to the White House
a disrespect for security protocol that still permeates through out our
Government to this day. They permitted those with only temporary security
passes to routinely enter highly sensitive areas. They stonewalled efforts
to properly identify possible security risks. Moreover, they routinely
violated security protocols themselves.

When I detailed these national security risks back in 1995 in my book
- Unlimited Access, we were only beginning to see the ramifications
of Clintonís lackadaisical attitudes towards security.

That same naive and irresponsible attitude is finally now apparent in
the Clinton State Department. Earlier this month, Russian intelligence
officer Stanislav Borisovich Gusev was arrested and expelled from the
United States for spying outside State Department headquarters. He was
caught picking up transmissions from a bugging device placed in a wall
of a State Department conference room.

What I saw as one of the two FBI agents assigned to the White House to
administer background and security checks is alarmingly similar to the
situation we now see at the State Department. According to the Washington
Times interview with FBI agents working the case, it was possible
that the person who installed the bug could work "unimpeded for several
hours because only two private security guards, neither of whom have top-secret
clearances, check offices on only two of the seven floors nightly."
In fact, the bug had been in place for several months before it was detected,
most likely because the security guards had no training in the detection
of listening devices.

Russian visitors, journalists, and others were often permitted to roam
through the sensitive building completely unaccompanied. Sources at the
Justice Department also told the Times that lax security at night and
on weekends could have allowed Russian spies easy access to the building.
The official also told the Times that the policy that was in place
for security guards to inspect ID cards "was imperfectly implemented
over a period of time" and was "applied on an episodic basis."

The Clinton Administration is reassuring Americans that the barn door
is now closed, and that tighter security measures have been taken to secure
our nationís vital secrets. The State Department began requiring employees
to show their photo identification cards, and unaccompanied reporters
have been confined to the press. The problem is fixed, they claim.

What is confirmed by this and other major security lapses (including
the Wen Ho Li/Los Alamos case), and my time in the Clinton White House,
is that the current administration is simply not concerned about addressing
the security needs of this nation. They have promised repeatedly that
they will take the proper steps to protect our nationís secrets. Yet time
and again, the truth is revealed, and Americans are faced with the reality
of how vulnerable our national security secrets truly are. The inescapable
truth is that the problem is not fixed. All that is left to be answered
is how long will our learned friends in Congress keep believing the lies
of President Clinton.